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Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Thursday, October 14, 2021:
SUPPLY CHAIN CRUNCH
The Biden administration has announced a series of measures intended to help ease the supply-chain bottlenecks that are clogging the ports and threatening to severely disrupt the holiday shopping season. The Port of Los Angeles will now operate around the clock to break the logjam of container ships lined up off the coast. Walmart, FedEx and UPS will also go 24/7. The White House said earlier this week that Americans should expect to see higher prices and empty shelves during the holidays. CHEDDAR
COST OF LIVING
Consumer prices rose more than expected last month, as inflation remained at its highest rate in more than a decade. The Labor Department’s consumer price index rose 5.4% in September from a year earlier, showing that pretty much everything -- from cars to appliances to food -- is more expensive as the economy grinds back into gear, and those high prices are lingering. So much so that the Social Security recipients will get a 5.9% cost-of-living adjustment next year -- the largest increase in 40 years. But rising prices will essentially offset that boost. USA TODAY
BOOSTER SHOTS
The FDA’s advisory panel kicks off a two-day meeting today to determine what to do about booster shots for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients. The panel of outside experts will vote today on whether to authorize a Moderna booster, then tomorrow they will take up the J&J shot. A highly anticipated study from the NIH released ahead of the meeting suggests that J&J recipients are actually better off getting a booster of either Pfizer or Moderna rather than a second shot of J&J. NPR
NORWAY TERROR
A man armed with a bow and arrow killed five people in a small town in Norway before he was arrested by police. The seemingly random attack happened in Kongsberg, outside Oslo. Police say the suspect is a convert to Islam whom they had been in contact with over concerns that he had become radicalized. It was the worst mass casualty incident in Norway since the 2011 massacre carried out by the extremist Anders Breivik. CNN
TRUMP TELLS VOTERS TO SIT OUT
Former President Trump is urging Republicans to sit out the next two elections if the GOP doesn’t “solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020,” calling it the party’s single biggest priority. Trump also called into a rally last night in support of the Republican running for governor of Virginia, claiming that he won the last election. That event kicked off with supporters pledging allegiance to a flag that was at the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. WASH POST
AIRPODS AS HEALTH DEVICE
Apple is said to be working on turning its AirPods into a full-fledged health device that can monitor posture, read body temperature and even act as a hearing aid. The proposed version is reportedly still at least a year out if it comes at all, but the plans show that Apple sees its health and wellness business as extending beyond the Apple Watch. The company is hosting an event next week that is expected to feature a new MacBook Pro, and there are rumors it could include an AirPods update, too. WSJ
COURIC ON THE RECORD
Katie Couric writes in her new memoir that she edited out disparaging comments made by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a 2016 interview about those who kneel during the National Anthem. Couric says she wanted to protect RBG from a backlash after the late justice said that those who kneel showed “contempt for a government that made a decent life possible.” Couric’s tell-all is already making waves for comments she makes about fellow women in the news business. Going There hits shelves on Oct. 26. DAILY MAIL
HOLLYWOOD STRIKE WATCH
Movie and TV production nationwide will effectively shut down on Monday unless a deal between the studios and the production workers union. IATSE said its 60,000 union workers will walk off the job at midnight on Oct. 18 if a new collective bargaining agreement isn’t agreed upon by then. The union says the boom in streaming is making for exhausting schedules and that profits aren’t extending to those behind the scenes. VARIETY
SPOTTED...
…Adele, announcing the release date of her forthcoming album, 30. The singer’s first album in six years will be out on Nov. 19. The first single drops tonight: SEE COVER ART
...Tim McGraw, jumping off stage during a concert in Reno and confronting the audience after he forgot the words to one of his songs: WATCH
...the latest terrifying robot dog, this one with a sniper rifle mounted to its back: SEE IT
LEFTOVERS: TO BOLDLY GO...
It wasn’t quite the Starship Enterprise, but William Shatner got his chance to touch space, and became the oldest person to do it in the process. The 90-year-old Star Trek alum and three fellow travelers traveled 67 miles above the Earth, felt a few minutes of weightlessness, and successfully came back down aboard a Blue Origin automated capsule. Jeff Bezos was there to greet the crew upon their return, with an excited Shatner telling him it was “the most profound experience”: SEE THE VIEW
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